Stains
|'Next chapter' Act 1 Act of War The forests of the Rukongai were calm and quiet, billowing lightly in light of the soft winds. A bleak gray sky moved gently above the landscape, the possible sign of a storm on it's way. Within the forest, however, things seemed to be much darker. A dark blur was flying through the high limbs of the trees, landing on one limb only to propel themselves to the next. It moved with such speeds, that it's form would be nigh impossible to make up with the naked eye. Finally, after several more minutes of this high speed movement, the figure stopped on top of one of the limbs. She was a young, petite woman who wore a traditional Stealth-Force attire, mask and all. Her green eyes scanned the ground beneath her, searching for anything suspicious. "Crap." she quietly muttered underneath her mask. "There isn't anything down here. The Commander might have sent me in a wrong direction but... no, she has to know what she's doing." she thought to herself, still looking through the grass and rocks underneath her tree. Quickly, she resumed her speedy movement through the tree tops. "Hell, even if she was wrong, I couldn't do anything to tell her about it except go all the way back, and she'd kill me for doing that..." '' ---- In the meantime, there was a petite woman who, clad in the attire of a shinigami, quickly and effortlessly blitzed throughout the small swamp that she was present in. Her facial expression was determined, and she would allow no place for distracts here. After a few seconds, the woman stopped. Picking up a cellphone-like device, she dialed in a number; the device was a . As it rang slightly, the number she was calling picked up. With a cheerful voice exuding from the recipient of the call, he shouted, "Ah, Suì-Fēng-san! What may I do for you?" The caller, Suì-Fēng, had immediately donned a sour facial expression. "Shut up, Urahara! Now tell me, where the hell are these Quincy?" "Patience, patience." Kisuke simply responded jovially, "I will be coming in just a moment, my Senkaimon is being readied. In the meantime, please scour the area properly. Kishiro Arashi, another agent, will be scavenging with you shortly." "No, don't send him here. The swamp is barren. I will go to my lieutenant; Kishiro may be sent towards the other location that you have gathered." Suì-Fēng said quickly, before heading off to her lieutenant towards the west. "Roger that, ma'am." Kisuke said with a slight grin, as he put on his hat and stepped through the Senkaimon he made. "Commander?" the young voice of Suì-Fēng's Lieutenant said over her earpiece almost immediately after Kisuke had logged off. Her voice conveyed an attempt at sounding professional, but it would be clear to one as experienced as Suì-Fēng that she was quite nervous, as evidenced by the occasional stammer in her tone. It had been this way for some time, at least for her. Having been handpicked by Suì-Fēng out of nearly three-hundred candidates to be her Second-in-Command of the Stealth Force, the pressure she felt on her shoulders was like a boulder. Even more unnerving to her was the fact that her very first mission, ''this mission, was to accompany her Commander in the search for surviving Quincy of the Blood War that had happened nearly a year ago. She still remember the haunting recounts of what even one of these Quincy was capable of, and it was something she hoped she wouldn't have to experience again. "I'm here and the drop point, waiting on you." she continued. "I still haven't seen any evidence of unusual Reishi fluctuations in the area. Our intel might have been off..." Suì-Fēng's expression went slightly grim, could their intellect really have been wrong? If so...were those Quincy lurking without their knowledge, at all? Suì-Fēng quickly eradicated those thoughts from her mind, pushing forward and reaching at Sora's destination in very little time. She paused, stepping on one of the branches with nothing more than a flutter of the wind. "Right; Sora, it would be best if we waited here for Kisuke Urahara to arrive prior to doing anything reckless. In the meantime, attempt to use Kōdōhankei as a means to find oscillations in the reishi composition of the area." Suì-Fēng commanded, while looking towards the sky. She wasn't having a good feeling...it was in her gut. "Yes Ma'am." Sora replied with haste. Wanting to keep her position hidden from any potential enemy's sight, she put herself behind one of the trees. Placing her hands together, she quietly muttered the spell's incantation: "Heart of the south, eye of the north, finger of the west, foot of the east, awaken with the flutter of wings, sleep with the chirping birds...." With that a small green orb appeared between her hands. Following that, several more small orbs of the same size, nearly the same as that of a baseball, appeared all around the two Shinigami women, forming into a large sphere that was nearly 500 meters in length and width. This spell was designed by the 1st Division Vice Captain, Nanao Ise to detect Quincy within a large radius areas. After a few seconds, Sora exhaled, closing her eyes in focus as she scanned their area. "Nothing yet... no immediate fluctuations a- wait." she stopped herself as her attention turned to her left. "Wait, I think I have something. It's....yeah it's at least 300 meters in that direction, Commander." pointing in the appropriate direction, while the small green orb in the distance that she was pointing to began to flash red. "I'll keep monitoring the readings here, while you can go and check it out...." she started, before glancing up at her commanding officer in a nervous fashion. "...not that you take orders from me or anything. I-I was uh... just suggesting it... I'll go investigate it if you want, ma'am..." "I shall do so, Sora." The commander replied sharply, with a slight look of sympathy on her face before she reverted to her stoic self. "In the meantime, I will put a small barrier around you. If you sense any enemies closer to you, deactivate it at will and immediately run towards the opposite direction. Distract them with if needed." She quickly began her run towards the direction Sora told her, keeping her hands wrapped in wind-like spiritual power in case of an attack. As she reached, she noticed nothing...peculiar, as of yet. But there was an ominous feeling; what it was...was unknown, however. "Right." Sora replied, regaining her composure after her initial stammer. It was a relief to her knowing that her Commander wouldn't snap at her so easily, not like the last Vice Captain. "Wait, Commander. I have something else..." she suddenly noted, glancing over to her left. "It looks like-" Without warning, a blue streak of light flew right behind her. If she hadn't suddenly leaned forward, her entire head would have been taken off. The streak blew such a large chunk of the tree off that it fell down to the ground. Sora had to duck underneath a large root to prevent from being hit again, but then she realized that the streak was heading straight for Sui-Feng... "Commander!" she shouted in alarm, desperate to warn her. Without even a warning, Suì-Fēng noticed a sudden interference within her spiritual radius; using her reaction-time and immense speed, her arm rotated behind her back, clasping the streak of light within its small diameter. In that instant, she snapped it like a twig, before moving to the direction where Sora was. As she reached, she noticed something...that she never would've guessed. "Captain Sui-Feng." Standing directly on top of the large root that an unexpectant Sora was hiding under, was a man wearing a traditional Stern Ritter uniform, hooded cloak and all. He spoke with such a clear, resonant, and downright menacing tone, it made him seem all that much more like a threat. "I should have known it would have been too much to hope that BG9 exterminated you." Enough of the hood was up to partially reveal one of the man's blue eyes, gazing down on the Stealth Force duo. "I never knew it for being thorough in a one on one fight." "Hmph, do you believe me as stupid, Stern Ritter...was it?" Suì-Fēng replied with grimace, immediately drawing her zanpakutō and keeping herself in a battle-ready position. The aura this man emitted...was far different from the she fought before. "Sora, be ready and careful. Begin your kidō preparation, now!" Suì-Fēng told Sora through a telepathic Kidō known to the Onmitsukidō. "Well, you're standing here now, halfway ''intact after doing battle with one of the deadliest Stern Ritter in our league." he replied, making a slight jab at the fact she no longer possessed Bankai. "So you've had to have done something right...." But as he spoke, a faint spiritual signature came from below him, originating from Sora. The Vice Captain was secretly preparing the Kido that her Commander had mentioned to her just moments ago. "Don't try it." he said to the young Shinigami, whipping out what appeared to be a colt revolver from underneath his cloak and firing it down at Sora. She wasn't able to react in time, as the Heilig Pfeil blew straight threw her left wrist, completely blowing her hand off. "Nngh!" she grunted aloud, instinctively grabbing the stub where her hand was. Blood was pouring from it, but she had to neglect it, using her spare hand to pull out her Zanpakuto and hold it defensively. Before Sui-Feng would be able to react, the man pulled out another revolver from the other side of his cloak, holding both weapons at both Shinigami respectively. "You've likely not heard of me, considering how little research your forces have done on the Vandenreich." he said calmly. "I am Asumu Godai, also known as Stern Ritter S, ''The Sharpshooter.'" "Sharpshooter? How classic." Sui-Feng commented, before noticing Sora's injuries. "Sora, don't hesitate to run if you believe you're too weak for this mission." Sui-Feng told her coldly, while hidden underneath was a small amount of compassion and concern. In that instant, Sui-Feng immediately utilized her prowess within the arts of movement to create numerous after-images of herself, as a means to disorientate the mans' vision further, she created a to scatter her spiritual presence. Sui-Feng's words brought Sora's focus down slightly, as well as her spirit. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her Commanding Officer, especially since she was picked to serve under her almost by hand. But she quickly shook this doubt off; if she could prove to Sui-Feng how resiliant she was, maybe it would make her look better in the Commander's eyes. She quickly extended her Zanpakuto out towards Asumu, and a green sphere of energy appeared at it's tip. "Gaki Rekko!" she said, as the sphere grew into a large, green see-through circle that fired green beams of energy out like a cage towards Asumu. "Hell." ''Asumu inwardly cursed in annoyance. His Sharpshooter ability could pinpoint Sui-Feng's location if she hadn't scattered her Spiritual presence so quickly. It would take a little more time to find her now, that is, if her Vice Captain wasn't firing Kido at him. The green blasts weren't much of a threat, neither was the Vice Captain for that matter; her injury was also impeding her aim, as most of the blasts simply wizzed right past him. As he sidestepped one of the green bolts, he casually fired another Heilig Pfeil at the Vice Captain. This time, instead of hitting her other hand, the blue bolt slammed into her Zanpakuto and knocked it completely out of her hands. Instead of killing the now disarmed Shinigami, he tightened his focus as best as he could along with his Spiritual awareness, and swung his other gun arm around to fire a Heilig Pfeil in the best direction he believed Sui-Feng was hiding. "''Tch." Sui-Feng noted to herself that this enemy was beyond the capabilities of both of these two. She needed to isolate him, but she couldn't with Sora still here. "Goddamn kindness." Sui-Feng thought to herself as she immediately took herself away from the mist. In that moment, she threw a vial of corrosive spiritual poison that immediately merged with the mist, causing the area beneath the mist to break down into spiritual particles. "Sora, get out, now." Sui-Feng commanded her lieutenant, hoping she would keep herself a safe distance away. While she wasn't a burden...she couldn't afford to keep her here and die. Sora's heart dropped again. While Sui-Feng may not have seen her as a burden, ordering her to leave the area didn't translate into something otherwise. Now she really felt useless, and her only option now was to simply leave. "Y-Yes ma'am." she replied with a disheartened expression, quickly grabbing her cracked Zanpakuto and using Shunpo to get as far away from the area as possible. "How cold." Asumu calmly said. While their Spiritual presence was hidden, Asumu was still capable of hearing their voices, though this Spiritual mist was still making it hard for him to pinpoint exactly where they were. "The daten said you never were one for subordinates, Sui-Feng. Even the useful ones, as you always preferred to do things on your own..." As Sora had now moved out of the mist-zone, he aimed one of his guns at her fleeing form, while still speaking to Sui-Feng. "So if that's the case, would putting a bullet through her brain bother you? Or would I be doing you a service instead?" "I don't believe you understand, Stern Ritter," Sui-Feng began to speak, preparing for her next move as she activated her Shikai silently, "I am telling her to leave so that she may be prepared to take upon my position if I fall here. Though...I'm not fighting to be a martyr, I'm fighting to be a selfish, alive woman." She told him, with a wave of resolve emitting from her being. She wasn't being an assassin anymore, not at all. To this, Asumu faintly smiled, lowering his gun aimed at Sora and instead leaving it in a position that he could easily change should a surprise attack come for him. "Then you do hold your life in higher regard than that of your underlings. Rather unbecoming of a woman in your position, Commander; a leader must always put the lives of their men before their own. But then again..." He aimed his right pistol down at where she was; the smoke clearing just enough to where he could pinpoint her position. Around the barrel of the gun appeared five small, humming blue spheres, making a formation similar to the Vandenreich star. They began gathering Reishi from around them in preparation for a deadly attack: '''Klavier. "...as a Shinigami of the Stealth Force, what could you possibly know of comaraderie?" he said in a slightly condescending tone, just as the arrows were prepared to fly... In that short instant, a man with shaggy black hair entered the stage. He intervened by quickly pointing the gun downward, causing the arrows to fire downward, and the two males to quickly move upward. "Sorry for the delay, Commander." The man smirked as he said, before telling the Quincy, "Now then, shall we see the extent of your gunplay?" The man snickered, before kicking the guns, moving the Stern Ritter a small distance away. This, Asumu didn't see coming. The sheer speed that his new foe used threw him off guard both when they were propelled in the air, and when he was sent a distance away after he received the man's kick. Quickly regaining his footing by landing on a nearby branch, the Stern Ritter gave Kishiro an annoyed stare as he aimed his left pistol at the newcomer. "I don't recognize you, Shinigami, nor do I have any quarrel with you. Stand down before I make you another nameless corpse on the battlefield." "If I'm a nameless corpse, you'll be one with me." Kishiro said with a small grin, "By the way, I should probably remove the nameless part of myself. Yo, Kishiro Arashi here. How do you do?" He comically asked the Quincy, despite the rather grim situation they were in. "Kishiro... Arashi?" Asumu idly muttered to himself, seeing now that this man was a completely unknown factor in his initial plan, and that his arrival could seriously complicate things for him. However, the man's rather jocular attitude was also rather annoying to him as well. "Hmph. I envy your nerve, Kishiro Arashi. Not many would treat a situation like yours in such a jovial manner. You must not take me for much of a threat." "Threat? Oh I do. But souring my mood isn't the best thing to do in most situations." Kishiro casually continued the conversation, all the while keeping his guard around for any sudden movements; he was an expert in reflexes, but sometimes even the body could get out of hand. "War doesn't provide the luxury of good moods." Asumu replied in a stoic manner. "Unless you relish in the death and suffering of your enemy, then I would imagine you to be nothing more than a savage, one whom I would put down immediately simply out of principle." As he aimed one of the guns at Kishiro, he spun the other one around in his other hand with his flawless skill in gunplay. "Are you a savage, Mr. Arashi?" Kishiro had already departed from his position, moving right in front of Asumu's pistol with a single step before placing his hand on Asumu's shoulder, utilizing the force from a kick to the ground to propel upwards, and thus appeared behind the Quincy, all while his palm folded, keeping a knife-hand towards the Quincy's neck. "So, how's that for being a savage?" That would be the last time Asumu would tolerate being pushed around. As he was going into the air, he could only expect Kishiro to try and hit him from behind. Just as soon as he heard Kishiro's voice, he pushed his Blut Arterie '''down into his right leg, and quickly twisted around to slam his enhanced leg into Kishiro's ribcage, sending him down to a more cleared part of the forest that was bordering a large cliff. No words would be spoken from the Stern Ritter; Kishiro was his enemy, and he intended to kill him then and there, just like all of his other enemies. As they both landed in the clearing, Asumu's hood finally came off, revealing his short silver hair and calm expression. Both pistols in his hands, and with his cloak billowing behind him, he spoke clearly to his foe. "Now, shall we begin?" A Bitter Reunion? In the meantime, a man with a rather normal appearance appeared before Sora, and tilted his dark hat accordingly. "Now now, you've been injured? That's no good." He said, before covering his hands in spiritual energy and making contact with Sora's body, quickly accelerating her blood clotting and healing process. "Wha-?" Sora stoped in her tracks as the man in an odd uniform appeared before her, offering to heal her wound. "Wait, you're Kisuke Urahara?" "Sorry about the delay, Commander-san!" He exclaimed, before Sui-Feng's nerves were visible on her head. "Don't be so casual right now...Kisuke..." She attempted not to burst with anger, but it was rather hard. On the other hand, Sui-Feng went downward towards Sora's and Kisuke's positions, and gave Sora a slightly apologetic look. "Sora...I apologize for my tyrannical behavior before. Believe me, I didn't mean to consider you a burden." The fact that Sui-Feng, of '''all people, was saying this, truly indicated the amount of change she had undergone following the battle with the Quincy. This took Sora slightly by surprise, but it also caused her expression to lighten up more with a smile. "Aw, don't get all smushy on me, Commander. I know what you were trying to do, and I trust your judgment during these sorts of situations. Besides, it's not like I had much choice anyway, right?" Sui-Feng then proceeded to berate her, "Do you have no shame! Talking to your Commander so casually!" Though she was genuinely letting out her internal feelings of gratitude; "Tough love, eh?" Kisuke commented with a small laugh, before dulling his expression. "We have a crisis at our hands. I'm imagining another enemy force to be here at any moment. While Kishiro can cross blades with that...other man for some time, we'll have to be prepared." Kisuke simply told the other two officers, before he immediately projected a barrier of a massive scale around the trio, all the while preparing numerous ward-like formations on the outside; Kidō traps to be precise. "He said he was called Stern Ritter 'S' when in the Vandenreich." Sora said to Kisuke, after overcoming her brief and comically fearful state at Sui-Feng's mood whiplash. Now, however, she appeared to be genuinely confused as she spoke to him. "But I thought the Stern Ritter already had someone listed as 'S' in their ranks, and the two of them certainly don't look anything alike. So who is this guy supposed to be?" "Well, if my data is correct, there was a Stern Ritter-like organization...approximately 1000 years ago. My inner suspicions are telling me...he is a relic from this past." Kisuke said, to which Sui-Feng kept her eyes wide open. "You're telling me...he's older than most of us?" Kisuke nodded in reply, "Yes, that is what I am telling you." "You mean that guy was around when the Gotei 13 was formed??" Sora also asked, now with as much surprise as her Commander. "But that means he would have had to have been sealed like the Quincy King. Humans can't live for hundreds of years otherwise... but what made this "Asumu Godai" so special for him to be given the same treatment as Yhwach?" "Hmm...power...of some sort. I suppose we must wait." Kisuke told the lieutenant, looking up towards the sky. "Sui-Feng, do you trust Kishiro?" Kisuke asked, to which Sui-Feng nodded in disapproval. "Not at all." Kisuke simply smiled, "Perfect, then." ---- Back in the clearing... Asumu had both guns drawn at his side, staring calmly at his foe. "Now, shall we begin?" "I don't mind." Kishiro smirked, soon enough his being being dispersed into countless flower-like petals, as his actual being flashed forward, all the while holding his zanpakutō in a reverse grip, attempting to bisect the entirety of Asumu's being. If there was one thing Asumu couldn't deny, it was the level of Kishiro's speed. Each time he used high-speed movement, Kishiro always managed to take him somewhat by surprise. This time, however, he would show Kishiro how ineffective a head on attack to his person would be. As Kishiro's blade came around toward his waist, Asumu twisted himself around and used the extended barrels of his pistols to block the attack. A flew of sparks were unleashed as a result, and both weapons rebounded against each other. Asumu hated trying to fight up close, so he used Hirenkyaku to leap back away. He aimed his two guns directly at Kishiro as he flew back, firing four powerful arrows at his Shinigami foe in rapid succession. "Good block!" Kishiro exclaimed to the retreating Asumu, before he threw his zanpakutō upward. Calmly, he placed both hands in a prayer position, before instantly projecting his spiritual force outwards, shaping it with the movement of his body, he quickly snapped all four arrows and returned on top of a tree branch, with zanpakutō in hand. "I'll have you know, I'm worse than a monkey!" Asumu landed a few meters away from Kishiro, but the man's comment caused him to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "I had already guessed as much..." he said in a calm, slightly annoyed tone. He pointed his left gun directly at the Shinigami, and at the tip of it's barrel was a small blue orb. Quickly, this orb transformed into a Vandenreich shaped star with a circle around it's tips, similar to the Vollstandig halo. "Licht Rein." Asumu said, before an onslaught of thousands of arrows all barrelled straight towards Kishiro, threatening to obliterate not only him, but most every thing in Asumu's path. "Shit." Kishiro thought to himself; numbers weren't his strong point. Immediately, he erected a barrier around his person to deflect the arrows that pointed directly to him. In this time, he quickly designated a few points where spiritual energy flared, before they turned into an inverse pyramid barrier known as a . And while he did this, Kishiro began to calm himself once again, and adjusted his position to be the best fitting for when the barrier broke. "3...2...1..." Cautious in nature, Asumu knew better than to assume that Kishiro would be overwhelmed by a simple, yet deadly attack. Activating his Sharpshooter ability, his vision zoomed into the pyramid that Kishiro had sealed himself within. "He's planning something..." ''Asumu thought inwardly. Had Kishiro not proven his speed earlier, he would have assumed that Kishiro was simply a fool, but he knew better than to underestimate him at this point. An arrow formed of black energy appeared near the barrel of his right gun. "Get out of there." Asumu said in an annoyed manner, before firing the arrow at the Kido spell. Rather than break through the pyramid, however, the arrow began to dissolve the Kido away, breaking it down into Reishi, as it would quickly do to Kishiro. This was Asumu's signature arrow, '''Zerfall'. "Already in front of you." Kishiro smirked, as he jumped onto a nearby tree branch, evading the abnormal black arrow. "I told you, fighting me isn't going to be easy!" Kishiro immediately propelled himself towards Asumu's position, causing the tree branch to snap under pressure as the wind around him accelerated thanks to his sheer speed. In due time, Kishiro lifted both legs, before propelling them above his body in a circular formation and sending them down to Asumu's shoulders, hoping to use the momentum to increase the velocity and power of his attack, and at least dislocate one shoulder. Asumu's suspicions were correct after all. Kishiro had demonstrated his tremendous speed once again, and had evaded the arrow as expected, but was now headed right straight for him with the intent to break both of his shoulders. If he lost them, then this fight would end rather quickly. Thankfully, he had enough time to activate his Blut Vene during Kishiro's descent. The results would be less than he expected. Kishiro's feet slammed into him full force, and despite him using Blut Vene, Asumu found himself skidding back several feet as a result. At that same time, he glanced into the ammo compartment of his right Spirit Weapon, finding that all six chambers had Ginto tubes in them. "It's either now or never..." ''he said, before aiming his gun into the air to his right and firing off a blue flare, one that transformed into a Wandenreich star when it reached it's end and started to fade away. A signal of some kind? Using this brief amount of time, he aimed the other gun at Kishiro. "Heizen!" he said as he fired a large, square shaped beam out of the gun directly at Kishiro, completely obliterating anything between the two fighters. Kishiro's eyes were completely focused on Asumu; he ignored the signal flare-like blue energy, and immediately used a backflip in order to get away from the beam fired directly towards his position. "''Tch. If we keep going like this, a stalemate will make me run out of energy..." Kishiro suddenly took a few steps back and suddenly propelled himself into the air, despite distance being disadvantageous to him in this situation. Upon reaching a certain point, Kishiro pointed his zanpakutō towards the sky, flooding it with his own spiritual power which released upward: "Leap Beyond the Sky, Muhiraiden!" He shouted, and the clouds began to rotate around at a central point, booming with the sound of thunder as a bolt of lightning - no - multiple bolts of lightning shot down at him. His upper-body clothing ripped apart, exposing a heightened muscular definition lined by dazzling electric currents across his body. "I'm sorry about this, Muhi..." Kishiro said to his zanpakutō, who didn't appear to respond. Shooting down at colossal speeds; higher than they were before, he raised his elbow above his shoulder, turned his palm into a fist, and shot out a bolt of lightning instantly from his being. "This...is the power of a Shinigami." He stated, as the bolt traveled down to Asumu's position. "What is this...?" ''Asumu started to think as the lightning clouds gathered above them, before his eyes briefly widened in shock at Kishiro's sudden Shikai activation. He had already proven himself to be a capable fighter without his Zanpakuto, but now in his release form, this fight could be even more challenging. The lightning bolt heading right for him was too quick for him to dodge. It was a blessing that he still had his pistol aimed at the direction where Kishiro previously was. His thumb pulled the charge back, and he gritted his teeth in focus. "Gritz!" he said aloud, as the gun started to fire a Ginto tube, but it burst into white smoke just as it left the barrell. This caused a large field of Reishi to envelop Asumu in the shape of a pentagram. When the Lightning bolt struck the field, a massive explosion was created as a result. The smoke cleared as Asumu leaped out of it, a fairly large burn on his left arm, but he appeared to be otherwise in tact. However, unlike before, his eyes were now glowing brightly blue. He looked at where Kishiro was, at least, where he last saw him, and fired another Klavier blast directly at the Quincy using both Spirit guns. Kishiro knew he couldn't avoid this one directly, even with his newfound speed. So he did the best he could, he kept still, rather strangely, and placed his hands to the air. Lightning was channeled through the veins, before being expelled as numerous threads of electricity, each one grappling one of the arrows, surrounding them, and crushing them underneath their might. But, Kishiro was scraped by a single one, which he barely avoided thanks to the electricity surrounding his skin repelling it away from him. After this was achieved, Kishiro propelled downwards; like a shooting star. And then suddenly, he stopped. The lag created by such a stop caused a sonic boom, which created a sound akin to thunder. Using this as a distraction, Kishiro shot out two smaller bolts of lightning, whilst channeling his spiritual energy into the air once again, preparing for another burst of natural lightning to come onto him. Asumu seemed to be hit by this attack directly, with both lightning bolts raining down on his position and resulting in two larger explosions. This was further evidenced by the fact that nothing remained in the wake of the explosions. But come to find out... "Behind you." Asumu appeared behind Kishiro, unharmed, despite appearing to be somewhat wounded earlier before. It was now revealed that, in the midst of the smoke from Kishiro's last attack, the one he blocked using Gritz, Asumu had created a clone of himself using Kasaneawase Hirenkyaku to distract the Shinigami. Pointing both guns at the man, Asumu fired another Ginto tube, revealed to be another Gritz spell at Kishiro, sealing him in the same pentagram field of Reishi as before. In the next gun, he fired a Ginto tube that resulted in a Wolke spell. The blast sent the captured Kishiro flying into the ground, as Asumu landed at the edge of the cliff a few good meters from him. "I think our business is concluded here." He said, before glancing his vision to the right of the captured Kishiro. Company was on the way... ---- "...What?" Sui-Feng merely was wide-eyed as she saw...what appeared to be...a massive ship approaching from the battlefield where Kishiro and Asumu were. The trio of Onmitsukidō operatives didn't know what they were looking at, but lead by Kisuke Urahara, the trio immediately moved towards Kishiro's location, to which they found that he was bound by a Gintō. "Sora, immediately unbind him." Sui-Feng stated, to which the girl began to respond. In the meantime, Kisuke drew his zanpakutō and released it worldlessly. "''This...is going to be difficult..." Sora quickly ran to the Ginto's side and used her own Kido to quickly undo the spell that had sealed Kishiro. While that was happening, she too was looking over to where the distant floating ship was. "The hell is that supposed to be???" she questioned aloud, having never seen such a thing before in her life. Then, the Ginto spell around Kishiro wore off, allowing her to switch her attention back to him. "Ah, there we..." she started, but as she saw Kishiro's shirtless form emerge from the smoke, her face almost turned completely blood red. "....go....?" "Sora, don't get distracted." Kishiro stumbled to say, as he began to stand up, looking at his superiors and saying, "I apologize for this..." "Don't. It's not your fault." Sui-Feng simply stated, as she looked to Kisuke, "Oi, what are we going to do?" Kisuke simply looked a bit blank, before he returned to focus. "It appears...if we were to do any massive damage, then we would use your Bankai. But considering you never recovered it.... We'll likely have to retreat for the time-being." "Use your Bankai then, asshole!" Sui-Feng shouted, to which Kisuke gave a mild glare. "I told you before...my Bankai isn't meant for people to witness." Sui-Feng simply stayed silent, looking onwards at the ship with little hope. The ship in question was massive in size, nearly three kilometers long and almost a kilometer wide. When it had completely come over the group, the entire landscape around them seemed to darken, demonstrating it's massive size. A metallic rope came down from one of it's latches, to which Asumu grabbed onto with one hand, while letting his other hand hang out. As it began to pull him up, however, he stopped it as he came nearly fifty meters away and above them. "Oh, Captain." he started, looking at Sui-Feng directly. "I almost forgot. I have a parting gift for you that I thought you might want to see. Some of my agents salvaged it from the remains of the last war..." Out of his free hand dangled a medallion. "Bankai." he said lowly, as his entire right arm was engulfed in a black and violet energy. When it cleared, he was holding a light blue version of a Bankai that Sui-Feng would recognize almost immediately, and was aiming it right at her. "Jakuhō Raikōben." he finished, before launching the missle like Bankai directly at the group, and quickly ascending back up into the airship via his support cable. "...?" Sui-Feng's eyes were mesmerized, and Kisuke immediately grunted in an angered tone. "Dankū" Instantly, Sora understood what the man was doing and chanted, "Dankū!" In that instant, two transparent barriers stood erect in front of the group of individuals, before Sui-Feng stated, "All of you, get moving!" Moving at high speeds, the explosion commenced as the missile came in contact with the Dankū barriers. While the ensuing explosion penetrated the barriers, it was enough to stall for a brief moment of time as the party escaped from the range of the explosion, though the shockwave disoriented Sora, to which Kishiro immediately grabbed a hold of her, protecting her with his own reiatsu. It wouldn't be but just a few seconds before they were all clear of the blast zone. Nearly two kilometers of forest had been leveled with that one blast; blue flames dotted the ruined landscape as a result. Even if they were fully recovered, the airship that Asumu had escaped into was already miles away. Their mission had mostly failed, and even worse, not one of them would be able to escape this cold new revelation: The war with the Quincy was not over yet. (Closing theme) END